Hey everyone! I recently faced an issue with a failing HDD, so I used ddrescue to copy everything from it to a new HDD after unlocking with dislocker. To summarize my process: I connected the new HDD, created a partition, and ran the command "ddrescue -d -r5 /dev/sda /dev/sdb rescue.logfile". I noticed some bad sectors during the copy process but it seemed to finish without showing errors afterward. However, when I booted up Windows, the PC unlocked but became unresponsive, showing the HDD at 100% usage without doing anything. I ended up forcing a shutdown and rebooting. Should I just format the old HDD and manually copy the files over to the new one instead of using this cloning method?
1 Answer
It looks like the cloning process didn't go perfectly, which is pretty common with failing drives. Remember, ddrescue isn't always a foolproof method for making a bootable drive, especially if the source drive has bad sectors. If it's just a data HDD and not your main boot drive, your best bet might be to format the old HDD and drag the files you need onto the new one manually for a clean start.
Thanks for clarifying! Since I'm new to this, figuring out the best way to transfer files while avoiding issues is really helpful.